Thanks for the response! Yeah it's tricky, they really have to be written in a particular way to work aloud. HP has its share of goofy dialogue and moments but...I dunno, it just worked so well for some reason.
We have done all the Narnia books, as well as some Oz...Baum is actually my favorite for readaloud but the kid isn't into them. Maybe I will try Redwall. We just tried Dragonlance, which was a constant stream of cringe. ;p
Not at all dude, I know what it's like, this stuff is like shooting into the dark sometimes, and it's the worst when you have a good book series or something working with your kid and it runs out or ends. I for one would love to have someone read Dragonlance to me, even now, you did good. I didn't think of Oz, dur.
Finished From Under Mountains, and with it my 8house read through (for now). A bit on the book. It's a historical fantasy that reminded me of game of thrones more than once, from its inciting incident, political machinations and its exploration and subvertion of gender roles in a feudal society. However the way in which the story is told and delivered is much slower and steadier than anything in GoT, and by using the art and especially the colours to build an atmosphere, it really gives an emotional weight to the events as they unfold. All told, by the end the story is quite straight forward but the way it's told makes it quite a sad emotional experience, and one that felt worth experiencing. I liked the middle eastern influence, oppose to the usual English medieval feel a lot of fantasy starts at.
On 8house as a whole, it was a good experiment by the creators involved, and I'm glad I picked these books up. It feels right that Mirror is the book of the three to continue, it felt like the perfect balance of what the line set out to do. Arclight was interesting with a weird world and gorgeous art but maybe just too sparse and thin on plot for me in the end. From Under Mountains was probably the most straightforward book of them all, and had some great colours but the world and ideas are more familiar. Mirror's visuals though are striking, creative in their delivery of storytelling, the world is unique with characters I really liked, and Rios just nailed her end of the deal with interesting ideas and themes. I wouldn't recommend all thee of these books to everyone but I would at least say have a look at the previews for Mirror if you think it might be something up your alley.
